1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a zoom compact camera. In particular, the present invention relates to a zoom lens barrel structure and flexible printed circuit board that is provided within the zoom lens structure.
2. Background of the Invention
In a lens-shutter type of camera having a zooming function ("zoom compact camera"), a lens barrel, and, in particular, a zoom lens barrel, is often provided with at least one movable barrel that moves away from and toward the camera along the optical axis. If an electrical unit, such as a shutter unit, is housed in the movable barrel, the shutter unit must be connected to the camera in order to receive control signals. Thus, the lens barrel is provided with a flexible printed circuit board (FPC) between the shutter unit and the camera to allow movement of the movable barrel with respect to the camera. However, a problem arises in that, as the movable barrel moves toward the camera, the flexible printed circuit board becomes slack and can interfere with the movement of the barrels or with the light coming through the camera aperture.
One conventional measure to control the above problem is to provide an area for taking-up and paying-out the slack part of the flexible printed circuit board. However, this method requires an extra mechanism for taking-up or paying-out the slack or requires extra space for storage of the slack.
Another measure is to provide a flexible printed circuit board that is formed with a spiral spring-like shape that is arranged around the inner diameter of the lens barrel such that, as the movable barrel extends, the flexible printed circuit board expands like a spring, and as the movable barrel retracts, the flexible printed circuit board also retracts like a spring under compression. However, this method requires that the lens barrel have a diameter that is sufficient to accommodate the flexible printed circuit board such that the flexible printed circuit board does not interfere with the light coming through the camera aperture.